Women are from Venus

I heard something a while back that although it seems like a generalization, experience seems to bear out that it is the case.  Women are very much focused on relationship while men are very much focused on career.
What Merril and I experienced seems to bear that out.  Merril was and is a very good worker, but she could not wait to retire.  I on the other hand, was a very good worker and when I could not go back to work, I felt robbed.  There comes a time, but I felt the time I finished was too early.
To me it helps explain why some women stay in toxic relationships.  For some it is about “their man.”  I have no desire to oversimplify what is a very complex matter, but often a woman is looking for relationship that works.  Again, to me, it helps explain why some women seem to go from one man to another.  For men it is a conquest and move on thing, while for many women it is a “maybe this is the one” thing.  What is going on is a living in hope.  Often it is hope that really is hopeless. 
Yet what we see the world over is a coupling for life.  There is no doubt that men want to settle down.  Women can make us look good (but don’t tell them that).  Again, it is an oversimplification, but men seem to love career and relationship while women love relationship and relationship (with the kids)
Merril and I watched something about South Korea.  It was focusing on housing affordability, or the lack of it.  A couple had one child and wanted another, but they had done their sums and they could not afford it.
This is a personal miff of mine and does not hold with the current thinking.  But it amazes me how often the current thinking is superseded by another diametrically opposite view.  I have trouble with the fact that both parents need to work to buy a house and be comfortable these days.  I am big on choice, and at the moment there does not seem to be one.  Either both work or only one does and the family lives close to poverty.
For most men their sense of identity and self-worth is tied up in the “bread-winner” role.  While both men and women provide and protect, protection of the ones they love seem to be very much tied up in a man’s identity.  It has been noted that in the massacres we have seen, men often throw themselves in front of the ones they love.
Yet holding to all that where do I stand?  Especially now that I have retired?  Some things do not change.  As a song I love says “I wanna hold you close but never hold you back / Just like the banks to the river.”   Although I need to grit my teeth to say it, often the women are right and have men’s best interests at heart.  It may seem that I am good for dealing with bugs, but I will always want to see the best for my woman and provide and protect. 
No wonder someone wrote “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” But it works.